Prof explains reasons for offensive e-mail

I am writing to clarify and explain the e-mail letter I wrote on Feb. 28 to the MSU Muslim Students' Association, or MSA.

To my regret and chagrin, I wrote my e-mail using tactless and hyperbolic language that is common to quickly composed e-mails, not to slowly and carefully crafted compositions. The speed I wrote the e-mail with is evident in my many misspellings, which I have been embarrassed to discover circulating across the Internet.

My letter addressed the attempts of the MSA to suppress free speech regarding publishing the Muhammed cartoons. It was not intended to impugn the integrity and decency of all Muslims in the United States.

The First Amendment, which strongly protects freedom of expression on public university campuses, is not merely a law. It is the embodiment of some of the noblest principles of our society. Free speech means little if it doesn't mean the right to provoke, challenge and debate the important issues of our day.

Thus, protesting cartoons that are deemed offensive is a valid expression of free speech. However, demanding that someone (such as The State News, for example) be censored, that someone (such as me, for example) be punished for speech, or worse, tolerating or advocating that someone be harmed for speech (such as Salman Rushdie, for example) is not a legitimate or reasonable approach in a free and open society.

Attempts that are made to limit free speech only to that which no one deems "objectionable" have not only proven unconstitutional but also are shortsighted. Those who call for censorship should think carefully about what the loss of the protections embodied in the First Amendment (which includes freedom of speech and religion) would mean for them.

Finally, although I am outraged by the abuses committed in the name of Islam, I have only the deepest respect for the many fine Middle Easterners, whether practicing Muslims or not, whom I have come to know during my 20 years of service to MSU; as co-faculty; as undergraduate students; as graduate students; as postdocs; as coauthors on dozens of publications; and as friends.

My letter was in no way directed toward them or the many other law-abiding and decent Muslims both here and elsewhere.

I. S. Wichman

mechanical engineering professor

Published on Friday, April 28, 2006